A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE SUMERIAN CURRICULAR AND LAMENTATIONAL TEXTS FROM THE OLD BABYLONIAN CITY OF KISH by Joshua A. Bowen A dissertation submitted to the Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland February, 2017 © 2017 Joshua A. Bowen All Rights Reserved Abstract The collections of Sumerian and Akkadian tablets that have been excavated at various Old Babylonian sites have been surveyed and subjected to corpus-based analysis, including the tablets from prominent cities such as Nippur, Ur, Sippar, Isin, and Uruk. However, until very recently, attention has not focused on the important northern city of Kiš. Although many of the literary and liturgical duplicates from Kiš have been translated and discussed, neither the curricular nor the lamentational corpora have been treated as a whole. The goal of my dissertation, therefore, is to survey and analyze the entirety of the Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1600 BCE) curricular and lamentational textual material from Kiš in order to identify local features or traditions that were unique to these genres. The survey of the curricular textual material will seek to accomplish two goals. First, it will identify the curricular compositions that were used in scribal education at Kiš during the OB period. Second, it will determine the ways in which the Kiš scribal curriculum deviated from the curricula that are known from other OB cites, such as Nippur, Ur, and Sippar. The latter investigation will reveal two patterns at Kiš. First, it will demonstrate that, although several curricular duplicates varied from manuscripts found at the major scribal center, Nippur, there is evidence to suggest that there were lines of textual transmission that connected the OB Kiš lexical tradition to those that were found in the MB and the first millennium. This evidence suggests that, although many of the Kiš curricular texts duplicate manuscripts that were found at Nippur, those that do not sometimes correspond with duplicates found in later periods, which appear to follow a more northern lexical tradition. ii Secondly, relative to the number of similar exercises found at the other OB cities, the Kiš curriculum included significantly higher numbers of Akkadian exercises (approximately two to four times as many), and appear in the elementary, intermediate, and advanced stages of the curriculum. It appears that students were required to copy Akkadian texts throughout their scribal training, beginning in the early stages of the curriculum. This relative abundance and broad application of Akkadian exercises in the whole of the curriculum speaks to the practical importance that Akkadian had in the day- to-day life of the scribes. The survey of the lamentational liturgies will seek to identify local features or traditions that were made to the Kiš laments in order to make them more appropriate for use in ritual performance. Many of these local features included city-specific modifications, such as deletions, additions, and replacements of proper nouns. Further investigation will reveal other local features, such as variant litanies, complete with unique incipits, unduplicated Kirugus, and modified refrains. Thematically, both the duplicated and unduplicated Kiš laments concerned themselves most often with the lamenting goddess. In short, I will conclude that the gala-priests were able to modify their liturgies to fit local consumption, and these traditions, in part, were incorporated into the standardized corpus of lamentational liturgies of the first millennium. Finally, the dissertation will investigate one final local feature that, while not unique to Kiš, was disproportionately used at the city: phonetic writings. The goals will be to identify the patterns or rules that were used to compose a text phonetically and to determine the most likely purpose for composing in this phonetic style in both lamentational and literary texts. iii The results of this dissertation will show that, although the OB Kiš corpus is poorly preserved and has lacked corpus-based investigation, both the curricular and lamentational texts are able to fill significant gaps in the study of scribal education and lamentational performance. The volume of curricular duplicates, though fragmentary and under published, reveals an active scribal educational system, complete with local characteristics and practical emphases. And although the evidence for lamentational performance in the OB period is scant compared to the myriad of texts composed in the first millennium, by revealing the content of many of the unduplicated liturgies at Kiš, and demonstrating local variants that appear in the laments, it will illuminate further aspects of OB lamentational performance. In the end, we see that the curricular and lamentational texts speak to the day-to-day activities that took place at OB Kiš, both in the curriculum, and in the cult. It will be seen that these Kiš traditions informed and influenced the standardized lexical and liturgical traditions of the first millennium, traditions that affected and shaped, to varying degrees, educational and theological concepts throughout Mesopotamian society. Advisor: Paul Delnero Second Reader: Jacob Lauinger Committee Chair: Colin Wilson Readers: Theodore Lewis and Tobie Meyer-Fong iv For Megan, Paige, and Piper v Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the help and support of faculty members, colleagues, and friends. First and foremost, I want to thank my advisor, Prof. Paul Delnero, who guided me through this long and difficult process. Without his suggestions, critical insights, and constant encouragement, I would not be where I am today. I would like to thank Professor Konrad Volk, who graciously allowed me to study with him at the IANES, and spent countless hours reviewing and reshaping my edition of PRAK B 471. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee, who graciously donated their time and energy to read and improve my thesis. I wish to thank the faculty and staff of the Department of Near Eastern Studies of The Johns Hopkins University, from whom I received rigorous linguistic, cultural, and archaeological training. Prof. Jacob Lauinger provided one-on-one guidance in order to help me develop my research and writing abilities, which ultimately shaped the final form of my dissertation. Although I had no prior archaeological experience, Prof. Glenn Schwartz patiently trained me from his extensive knowledge and expertise, and allowed me to gain priceless field experience at Umm el-Marra, Syria. Finally, Prof. Ted Lewis sharpened my abilities in Hebrew, providing me with a different and critical perspective into the biblical texts. My time in coursework would have been far more difficult had it not been for the help and friendship provided by my colleagues. In particular, my time spent with Caleb Howard was invaluable, as he provided companionship, patience, counsel, insight, and moral support. I would also like to thank William Reed and Anna Glenn, whose friendships have also meant a great deal to me over the years. vi Finally, I wish to thank my family for their love, support, and patience throughout this long and arduous process. My father, Karl Bowen, not only encouraged me to persevere through the latter stages of the program, but also provided the financial means to do so. My daughters, Paige and Piper, patiently endured my time away from home, and were always excited to see me when I returned. Finally, I could not have completed this dissertation without the love and support of my wife, Megan Lewis, who stood by my side during my time in Germany, and lovingly pushed me to meet and overcome the challenges of this dissertation. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... xii I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 Previous Assyriological Treatments of the Kiš Curricular and Liturgical Texts ............................................... 1 Introduction to the Kiš Corpus ...................................................................... 3 The Kiš Curricular Texts and Scribal Education ........................................... 6 Kiš Laments and their OB Context ................................................................ 7 Overview and Methodology of the Dissertation ............................................ 8 Appendices .................................................................................................... 11 Limits of the Study ........................................................................................ 12 II. ARCHAEOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF THE OLD BABYLONIAN CITY OF KIŠ ............................................. 14 Excavation History of Kiš ............................................................................. 14 The Date of the Tablets from Kiš .................................................................